In bringing a product or products to market, a marketing department in an organization will typically produce several different marketing campaigns. Each campaign may involve a separate marketing effort, such as web site promotion, electronic mail promotion, print mail promotion (i.e., a promotional mailing physically sent using a postal service, rather than electronically sent over a computer network), a web-based event, or a live event. The marketing function in an organization has, however, traditionally lacked systems and tools to effectively track the results and effects of such marketing efforts on corporate revenues.
For example, a typical marketing strategy involves selecting a particular group of individuals based on demographics, or other characteristics, and then targeting that group with a marketing campaign (e.g., a mass mailing of electronic or print mail, a calling campaign, etc.). In the past, a marketing department would typically keep a list of the individuals targeted by the campaign, and, if one of those individuals eventually purchased the product(s) being marketed, the marketing department would credit that sale to the marketing campaign.
Such a crude approach to assessing the effectiveness of a marketing campaign is, however, of limited value. It does not, for example, provide any insight into whether the individual was, in fact, influenced by the campaign, or to what extent. For example, the print mail of a mailing campaign may have been discarded by another before reaching the targeted individual, the electronic mail of a mailing campaign may have been deleted by the targeted individual without being opened, and/or a targeted individual may have never listened to, or simply deleted, a voice message left for him or her in a calling campaign. The reason for the individual's purchase may, therefore, be unrelated to the marketing campaign.
As such, systems, methods, and apparatus that provide further insight into the effectiveness of a marketing campaign are needed.